We’ve been planning this one for ages. This one was going to be the best. Jason had a better feel for the number as I had taken a step back last year. He said “We’ll get 300” and we did, plus a few more. This one was our step up to the big time. We knew that the course and format worked and that we had a good following amongst the riders, so this was the year that we took it up a notch and put on a big show.

The hard work of the previous five events and the exposure that we had gained meant that attracting sponsors was relatively easy. Every request was met with “Yep, we’ll donate this and this and this”. We also had a policy of being quite choosey and only asking people that we liked or approaching manufacturers who’s products we used personally. This proved a costly exercise as I liked one of the Endura jackets so much that I went and got one myself.

The day itself was a bit of a blur and I have relatively little recollection of the race. It is an odd sensation. Because of the amount of planning and the people that come to help things just seem to happen. This is no fluke, we’ve been doing this for years now with more or less the same bunch. Rachael does the catering, Simon Fox is about in some capacity (Head Marshal this time), Simon Davenport is on the gate, Andrew Moore is in the middle, Super Brian is at the bottom car park. The medics turn up and do their stuff. The brass band arrive with all their gear and get on with it and so on and so on. We are good because we know how to do it. It is like driving on cruise control, before you know it you’ve got to the end.

The only spanner in the works this year was the snow. Getting out of the car park was a faff but we did our thing, we got our heads together and we sorted it. The sight of Jason leading his troops over the hill with a wheel barrow and a dozen traffic cones full of grit to come and rescue all of the stricken BMWs will stay with me for a long time.

So there we go. We organised a brilliant event again and I have next to no recollection of it.

However, there were plenty of other people there taking photos and writing blogs. For a better understanding of how the day went you should click one of the following links or Google it. I will.

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One Response to Hit the North 3

I know what you mean about the lack of recollection. One minute it’s somewhere before 7am, the next minute, you’ve got bin bags full of muddy course tape, you feel strangely tired and you realise you’ve not had any food for 12 hours… Thanks for a fun time!